Grammy award-winning trumpeter Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard died today at the Sherman Oaks Hospital in Los Angeles of complications related to a heart attack in November.

Hubbard began his musical career on mellophone in his junior high school band, and within a year switched to the trumpet (having already played the trumpet at home.) As a high school student, he studied french horn and played both trumpet and tuba in the school marching band. In the 1950s, he took trumpet lessons with the first trumpeter of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In Indianapolis, he and Larry Ridley co-led the Jazz Contemporaries, a quintet including James Spaulding. He also played and recorded with the Montgomery brothers.

He moved to New York City in 1958 and immediately worked with artists like Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton, J. J. Johnson, Art Blakey, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock and John Coltrane. From 1964 on, Hubbard worked principally as a leader with his own quintets and quartets, but he also played as a sideman with Max Roach from 1965-6. He also made a tour with Herbie Hancock's group V.S.O.P. in 1977. Hubbard's most constant sideman was Kenny Barron, but other musicians like Louis Hayes, Junior Cook, Buster Williams, Al Foster, George Cables, Henry Franklin, Billy Childs, and Carl Burnett also spent times in the trumpeter's groups. In the mid-1980s, Hubbard made many international tours and recordings with all-star bands, playing much hard-bop and modal jazz. In 1985 and 1987 he made albums with Woody Shaw. Hubbard's busy performing schedule continued until 1992 when he maintained a serious lip injury. As a result of the injury, he recorded and performed less regularly.

Hubbard won a Grammy in 1972 for his performance on the album First Light. Hubbard also received the US National Endowment for the Arts' Jazz Masters Award in 2006.

Freddie Hubbard, 1938-2008

Sources: National Post, Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and wpri.com news